Example sentences of "hardly have been " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The need to emphasise that God would not maintain the system indefinitely no matter what restrictive practices and losses could hardly have been greater . |
| 2 | The contrast in styles could hardly have been more stark . |
| 3 | It could hardly have been otherwise when Thatcher and Kinnock were visiting Moscow and Washington to discuss Britain 's defence policy . |
| 4 | The information could hardly have been more ordinary . |
| 5 | It could hardly have been the result of an error . |
| 6 | When there were contractors to be handed out directors may have tried to help one another , but that can hardly have been a sufficient reason for buying up large blocks of shares . |
| 7 | This in itself would hardly have been significant had it not been for a wider transformation of the adult male working class . |
| 8 | However , thanks partly to the arrival of the sound film , this small measure was to change the nature of the British film industry in ways that could hardly have been foreseen by the legislators , and enable it to ‘ project England ’ more effectively than it had ever done before . |
| 9 | Having watched the ignominious departure of Mr Jakes , the president himself — which Mr Husak had become — can hardly have been surprised that his own head was now being demanded on a platter . |
| 10 | Even his serve , which he does not really rate as a weapon , could hardly have been faulted . |
| 11 | America 's way of pressing it , however , could hardly have been more absurd . |
| 12 | Given the size of the loans to Mr Parretti , Alexis Wolkenstein , the head of the bank 's international division , and Jean-Yves Haberer , the bank 's chairman , can hardly have been unaware of its growing involvement with him . |
| 13 | But it would hardly have been so to the ‘ vulgar ’ . |
| 14 | Yet signs are not wanting that the mental effort of doing so is one which will become more and more difficult as the memory of the distinct courts of Law and Equity dies out ; and perhaps already the unified jurisdiction of the High Court , and the statutes which have codified certain branches of Common Law and Equity , have produced some results which could hardly have been given by any combination of proceedings in the separate courts , or by the development of the law solely by means of cases decided in them . |
| 15 | The election could hardly have been better designed to promote the DUP . |
| 16 | The following day it was revealed that Bering had chipped a bone in a knee during the race , but such was the power of his acceleration as he took up the running that he could hardly have been affected until the very final stages . |
| 17 | Certainly he never made any secret of his Conservative past , having twice stood unsuccessfully for parliament among the miners of County Durham , where his air of a slightly lost rural dean can hardly have been an asset . |
| 18 | That a movement beginning as a breakaway group within Judaism should end by capturing the imperial palace could hardly have been foreseen by the Emperors Tiberius or Nero . |
| 19 | Given the state of the war , the undeniable growth of anti-Nazi feeling , and the rising criticism of Hitler himself , which we have been able to document for the years 1942–4 , such reports can hardly have been an accurate reflection of existing attitudes . |
| 20 | She recovered — though the royal nursery in Linlithgow can hardly have been a peaceful place , with its occupant combining convalescence with the more normal infant problem of teething ; but she was entirely well by the time Sadler saw her again , in early August . |
| 21 | They could hardly have been more different from the swaggering louts of the Hotel Olympik who would chatter among themselves for ten minutes and then saunter towards one as much out of boredom as anything else . |
| 22 | This can hardly have been the enlightening effect of reason and liberty since in France the outcome of the same ideals was the triumph of the guillotine . |
| 23 | It might seem unfair to pursue the Morse comparison , but it could hardly have been more strongly invited in this BBC1 thriller . |
| 24 | She would hardly have been able to get as far as she had already without a very strong image of the outlines of the world , of her own personal dream . |
| 25 | This book would hardly have been possible without the help of the long memories of two gentlemen who were children at Foxton during the time of the Lift . |
| 26 | There could hardly have been a clearer contrast between the raw truth and the glossy image . |
| 27 | There could hardly have been a more blatant political manipulation of the public inquiry system in favour of the developer . |
| 28 | The contrast between the mondaine world of Beatrice Hastings and the ghetto of Jewish painters from Eastern Europe could hardly have been greater , and Beatrice had little patience for Modigliani 's gauche , unsophisticated friends . |
| 29 | This would hardly have been necessary if at that time they were in a position to dictate the policy and actions of the association . |
| 30 | Virginia Woolf , in her Bloomsbury circle , could hardly have been closer to the metropolitan heart of England , yet she , too , found a foreignness within it , deliberately defining herself as an alien . |